$100 in 1951 is worth $171 in 1973,
because prices increased 70.8% over that period, an average of
2.46% a year.
$100 in 1951 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.8%
Average inflation rate
2.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.77
CPI in 1951
26
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1951 → 1973
$171
$100 in 1973 → 1951
$58.56
What happened to prices between 1951 and 1973
Between 1951 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 26 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.8%, which works out to an average of
2.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1951 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1973: the 1951 dollar
lost 41.4% of its purchasing power over
these 22 years.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
Every 1951 amount converts to 1973 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,708, and $10,000 becomes $17,077.
Amount in 1951
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.54
$10.00
$17.08
$20.00
$34.15
$50.00
$85.38
$100
$171
$500
$854
$1,000
$1,708
$5,000
$8,538
$10,000
$17,077
$100,000
$170,769
$1,000,000
$1,707,692
Inflation by spending category, 1951–1973
Between 1951 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 144.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 47.2%, against 70.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1951
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1951 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.46%
$171
Medical care
4.14%
$244
Transportation
2.47%
$171
Food
2.47%
$171
Apparel
1.77%
$147
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1951: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1951 to 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (1.45% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1951–1973 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1951, at end
1951–1960
1.45%
13.8%
$114
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$149
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1951
$100 from 1951 had already become $116 by
1962, on its way to $171 in 1973; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 6.2% in 1973, and prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1951 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1951 to 1973: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1951 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1951-to-1973/